UC Davis Medical Center honored for high patient-satisfaction ratings

June 14, 2012

Three UC Davis Medical Center units have been awarded for their high patient-satisfaction ratings by a company that conducts patient-satisfaction studies for more than 300 hospitals and health systems around the country.

Professional Research Consultants (PRC) bestowed 5-Star Excellence in Healthcare awards for 2011 to:

Department of Emergency Medicine, Debra Trainor, nurse manager, and Nathan Kuppermann, chair. This is the department's second 5-Star award.

Home Health Program, Glenda Reckner, manager. This is the program's second 5-Star award.

Same Day Surgery Center, Shirley DaRosa, interim nurse manager. This is the center's third 5-Star award.

Joe Inguanzo, president and CEO of PCR, right, presents the 5-Star award to members of the Home Health Program. From left, they are Charlotte Norton, Audra Flynn and Robin Shelton.

PRC officially announced and distributed the awards at its annual Excellence in Healthcare Conference, held June 3-6 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"It's gratifying that the PRC awards again reflect the caring and commitment to our patients that our employees display every day," said Ann Madden Rice, CEO of UC Davis Medical Center. "The PRC surveys are an important part of our overall commitment to safe, high-quality and patient-centered care."

Every year, PRC recognizes the health-care organizations and individuals among its clients that have exhibited excellence throughout the preceding year through the PRC Excellence in Healthcare Awards. Units that meet or exceed the 90th percentile for overall quality of care receive 5-Star Patient Perception awards.

PRC's clients include the Mayo Clinic, the Shands and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The health-system survey program includes more than 23,000 patient interviews a year, including inpatients, outpatients, and ER, outpatient -surgery and home-health patients.

Using the data PRC collects for all of its clients nationally, UC Davis Health System is able to benchmark itself against other hospitals and medical groups around the country.

UC Davis Medical Center is a comprehensive academic medical center where clinical practice, teaching and research converge to advance human health. Centers of excellence include the National Cancer Institute-designated UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center; the region's only level 1 pediatric and adult trauma centers; the UC Davis MIND Institute, devoted to finding treatments and cures for neurodevelopmental disorders; and the UC Davis Children's Hospital. The medical center serves a 33-county, 65,000-square-mile area that stretches north to the Oregon border and east to Nevada. It further extends its reach through the award-winning telemedicine program, which gives remote, medically underserved communities throughout California unprecedented access to specialty and subspecialty care. For more information, visit medicalcenter.ucdavis.edu.